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I know I read these articles about "cures" with a jaded eye because I understand how difficult it has been to get this far and how much futher the scientists have to go yet. Too often these reporters try to simplfy or confuse things to make a cure sound radically closer than it is. While I appreciate any press about the need for a cure, rather than talk about things that probably cannot be applied to the vast majority of HIV patients, can't they talk about the different obstacles, the need for funding and research, and why a cure benefits everyone.

So I thought this was a pretty inappropriate title for the piece. One patient has had his immune system replaced, another went a whole whopping 12 weeks before going back onto meds (while it didn't work for 5 other people. besides I've known several people who have been off meds for 6 months (myself) to several years before they "had" to get back on them, so I don't see what the big deal here is), and another kind of treatment that could over-stimulate your immune system and cause who-knows-what damage if it runs amok in your body.

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One man, the so-called Berlin patient, apparently has cleared his H.I.V. infection, albeit by arduous bone marrow transplants... But bone marrow transplants are grueling, risky and expensive. Moreover, it is hard enough to find an immunologically matching donor, let alone one with mutations in both copies of the CCR5 gene.

thank goodness they used the word "cleared" not "cured". I still say a better word is "eradicated" because the radiation, chemo and transplants cleared out his whole immune system and gave him someone else's.

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“At 12 weeks, you can’t say that this therapy works and the patient is controlling it by himself,” said Dr. Jeffrey Laurence, director of the AIDS research laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College....The gene therapy did not work so well for five other patients,... And the Trenton patient, who is back on antiviral drugs,...

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Vorinostat might activate not only the virus, but also genes that are supposed to remain silenced, causing side effects. Activating too many resting memory T-cells could lead to a dangerous immune system overreaction.

Logged

leatherman (aka mIkIE)

All the stars are flashing high above the seaand the party is on fire around you and meWe're gonna burn this disco down before the morning comes- Pet Shop Boys chart from 1992-2015Isentress/Prezcobix

The article was quite responsible in discussing were the science is at this particular moment. (And the podcast was even better)

The fact that Tim Brown cleared (cured, eradicated, potato potato) his virus is rather remarkable even if it was from a series of events that no one would want to replicate.

The patient who started treatment back at 12 weeks didnt do so because he had to, he did so because the study period was over and per the rules of the study he restarted his medication. When he initially stopped taking his meds his viral load shot up, then returned to undetectable, while not on any medication, again remarkable.

As far as the title, "Hope for a cure" I'm not sure I see that it is a problem. No where did the article promise a cure, or give a time frame or anything else. It talked about the state of science. I dont see the problem with that.

As far as trying to get the word out for more research..things like this article are doing exactly that. The NIH recently gave a $70 million grant for cure research based in large part on what happened to one person, Tim Brown.